Writer's Block: Are you incentivized?

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I have a couple. I've spoken of this one before but a big buzzword I don't care for is "privilege". Not because I think it doesn't exist, but because the only people I ever see talking about it are privileged themselves. That is to say, white liberals who usually make more money than I do, (which believe me, isn't hard.) Nowadays the internet is full of privilege martyrs who think they're experts on the subject because they read about it on some other white liberal's blog.  Talking about privilege is one thing. Being talked at about it by someone suffering from liberal guilt is something else entirely. (And I do identify as liberal in case you're wondering.) The same goes for the words "other" and "othering."

Here's another one that irks me. It's on my mind because someone mentioned it on FB tonight and that's "racefail." Again, serious issue but I think the cutesy little made up word trivializes that seriousness. I'm not going to get on anyone's case for using it, but the term makes me uncomfortable.

Fast food musing.

-Right now KFC is selling its chicken in pink buckets and donating fifty cents from each bucket to breast cancer research. That sounds really awesome until you realize that a bucket of KFC chicken costs, like, $25. Gee, a whole twenty five cents. Don't put yourself out or nothing there, KFC. Plus you have to consider that their chicken probably causes cancer in the first place. Anything that tastes that good would have to.

-As part of their tie-in promotion with Iron Man 2 Burger King is selling the Whiplash Whopper, named after Mickey Rourke's character in the film. It has crushed peppers, hot sauce, fried onions, and pepper jack cheese. It will make you throw up, hurts your anus, and is brought to you by Mickey Rourke.

It will make you throw up. Hurts your anus. And is brought. To you. By. Mickey Rourke.

Want one?

Writer's Block: Book based

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Many books I've enjoyed have been made into movies. But a really memorable, stand-out, bad adaptation was Starship Troopers. Robert Heinlein's philosophy-heavy novel explored military ethics and the necessity of war. Consequently it's come to be seen - whether it deserves to be or not- as a piece of jingoistic, pro-war propaganda. Naturally when the guy who directed such films as Showgirls and Robocop got ahold of it he thought the best way to approach the novel's nuances was to make it... a sort-of comedy spoofing 1940's newsreels, showcasing Dina Meyer's breasts, and Neil Patrick Harris overseeing the violent penetration of a giant anus monster. I am not making this up.

Supporting roles from two Highlander bad guys, a cameo by one Golden Girl, and even the mighty Denise Richards herself could not save this movie. If Denise Richards didn't seem totally into it when she was making out with Neve Campbell in Wild Things it's probably because she still had the taste of this cinematic turd in her mouth.

Oddly enough, the Starship Troopers movie was followed by the animated television series Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles which utilized the characters and setting as they had appeared in the movie, but tied them back to ideas and characters exclusive to the book and following the tone of the book much more closely. If there's a "real" movie version of the story, I consider that to be it.